India vs Australia Day 3, Second Test: Statistical Review

At stumps on day 3 of the second Test at Bengaluru, hosts India is fighting to make a comeback in the Test match and also in the ongoing Test series. Visitors Australia began the day on their overnight score of 237/6 and made 276 runs before getting bowled out. At the end of the first innings, Australia took an important 87 runs lead over the hosts.

Indian batsmen, so far, had replied very well as they were on 213/4 at stumps on the day 3. At the end of the day, India was leading by 126 runs.

Australian batsmen added only 7 runs for their last four wickets during their first innings. It is the joint lowest total runs added for last four wickets by Australian batsmen against India in a Test innings. Previously at Kolkata Test in 1964, Australian batsmen had added the same runs (7 runs) for their last four wickets during their first innings.

Indian left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja bowled excellently during Australia’s first innings. His final bowling figure in that innings was 21.4-1-63-6. It is the 2nd best bowling figure in a Test innings by an Indian left-arm bowler against Australia. Former Indian left-arm spinner Bishan Singh Bedi is the record holder with an impressive bowling figure of 7/98 (at Kolkata in 1969).

After playing a superb knock of 90 runs in the first innings, Indian opening batsman KL Rahul once again played a good innings during India’s second innings. This time, he scored 51 runs before getting dismissed. He became the seventh Indian opening batsman to score 50+ runs in the both innings of a home Test match against Australia.

The first six batsmen who had achieved that feat were: Ashok Mankad (64 and 68; at Kanpur in 1969), Chetan Chauhan (58 and 84; at Kanpur in 1979), Navjot Singh Sidhu (62 and 64; at Chennai in 1998), Gautam Gambhir (67 and 104; at Mohali in 2008), Virender Sehwag (66 and 92; at Nagpur in 2008) and Cheteshwar Pujara (52 and 82*; at Delhi in 2013).

Indian skipper Virat Kohli was dismissed for just 15 runs. With this knock, Kohli becomes the second most runs scorer as an Indian batsman in a Test season. At the end of the day, Kohli has scored already 1,246 Test runs in the ongoing season (2016/17) which is 23 runs less than Gautam Gambhir’s record of 1,269 Test runs in 2008/09 season.

On the day, Indian batsman Cheteshwar Pujara completed his 1,000 Test runs in the ongoing season (2016/17). Before him, Indian skipper Virat Kohli had also completed 1,000 Test runs in the ongoing season. It is the second time in history where 2 Indian batsmen scored 1,000+ Test runs each in the same season. The first such incident was in 2003/04 season where Rahul Dravid (1,241 runs) and Virender Sehwag (1,079 runs) had achieved that feat.

Indian batsmen Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane put up an important partnership for the 5th wicket as the partnership remained unbroken at the end of the day for 93 runs. Currently, it is India’s joint 3rd highest fifth wicket partnership in their second innings of a Test match against Australia. The top two in this list are 376 between Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman (at Kolkata in 2001) and 109 between Abbas Ali Baig and Ramnath Kenny (at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai in 1960).

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